New Ritteri, Ammonia in the shipping bag

[Poorcollegereef]

Hey, I got a new ritteri from a very good online fish store. It arrived and it was is in fair condition, esp for a ritteri. Right before I did drip acclamation (sp?) i decided to to test the bag water to see the parameters and I found that there was 1ppm of ammonia. Should I be worried about this? There was no foul smell or any visible cut in the anemone's flesh. I will update if the foot attaches/does not attach. In any case, the only thing that is unique is that it had two mouths! I ordered a 'medium' 3-5 inch ritteri and they sent me that is nearly 10-12 inches for some reason. So does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

 

[maww]

2 mouths! sounds like it will split soon. Ammonia not surprising- it probably just spent the best part of a day in its own waste... yuck. good luck with it!

BTW, I hope it is not part of the "20 galllon experiment"

 

[Poorcollegereef]

unfortunatlly yes, I wanted a smaller one and my expression was probally priceless when I saw the size, but the anemone wouldnt handle being sent back and my LFS is a anemone graveyard. My goal for the tank was more of a 2clown/anemone host display only but in my bordom, I added a few smal Zoa and a acropora frag. The tank size including the sump is 40 gals, nitrate always less that 5ppm, and I have 150MH 20000k as lighting so hopefully i will be able to keep it. oir alteast half of it if it splits

 

[Poorcollegereef]

also should I be worried that the anemone is sitting on the sand. I know some carpets are proned to infection by beig placed on the sand, but I want sure about ritteri, im thinking about moving it intop of sme love rock but i worried about having too much current at this stage of accliamation

 

[z_rivers]

H. mags love strong flow, so dont be afraid about that. if its laying on the sand or isnt attached to anything thats a bad sign. if it doesnt perk up in a few days i would start to worry, especially for it being in a 20 gallon tank.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

well the anemone appears to be perking up, although it still may be to early to tell. ritteris always have a troubed shipping process. I have plenty of water flow from two points which intersect near the anemone, its nolonger on the sand and it isnt getting blown around. One mouth is almost completely closed up and the other one is slightly open.

And get this, I believe I spotted a THIRD mouth towards the outside of of the oral disc. Its really small, smaller than a dime, but it isnt a tear because that mouth has been open more so than the other two.

I would like to see this anemone 100% healthy and then split, but I will try and stablize it and I might sell it to a really good saltwaterFS about two hours away because i think it is too big for my tank. Shesh, if I had my 55 gal back, this would be perfect. Oh well fate seems to be like that. All I wanted as a 3-5 inch ritteri and they send me something that is more than double.

 

[maww]

You may be ok with it in this tank. You certainly have enough light. I would add to the biofilter- more well cured live rock and or sand in the fuge to help keep the water quality more stable. Can't have too much IMO. As long as it is happy to sit in one place, and you can keep the environment stable, you should stand a good chance.

 

[tstone]

I agree with maww. I think it will be difficult to keep it in a small system.
If you don't have an auto top off i would try to set one up.

Good luck!

 

[SVXH6]

i would liike to see pics of this anemone.. splitting is not "common" but possible.. are you sure they are not tears?? now you mention a possible third mouth..i'd just like to see pics.. i own a H.Mag myself, and this would be rather interesting to see..

 

[Flighty]

As far as I know these guys almost never seen in that small of a size. a 10" specimin is a small. In my experience, a 10" one grew to about 20" in about 3 months with heavy feedings.

I don't want to be negative, but I really think this is a very bad plan. They seem to have almost no chance in anything but an extreemly stable tank with very very high flow and lighting. I don't think it is possible to provide this in a 20g tank. Just the amount of waste from one feeding is enough to crash a 20g never mind what the smallest spawn would do. A Magnifica spawning is enough to crash a tank with hundreds of gallons, and unstable conditions might prompt a specimin to spawn as a last ditch effort at survival.

Again, I know negative posts don't really do any good, but I'm just trying to give you a bit of the reality of these critters. I do hope all goes well and don't take this post as a reason to not ask further questions.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

here are some pics from yesterday, sorry if their fuzzy but camera wouldnt focus

I havent been able to get a visible pic of the "third mouth", but I will try later today. Thanks for everyone's imput


Edit: My 20gal "sump" is an extra 20 gal tank which has a 2 inch live sand beed at the bottom. I have two skimmers, a prizm deluxe rated for 100gal, and a skilter 250 which i normally use for curing live rock but since it had a lot of extra space inside, i filled it with ceramic rings and small bioballs and place it in the tank. I have two magroves and a large clump about the size of a basketball of bubbled leafed algae. (not bubble algae but I cant remember the name, i think it is something like ''calperia'') My normal filter is a penguin 200 biowheel filter with ceramic slab filter inserts. I have 22 pounds of live rock and about 45-60lb (three bags) of argramax sand.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

ok, I think the ritteri has taken turn for the worse. Last night it was able to get a loose foothold on a peice of live rock, but wheni returned from class, it has lost it's footing and the mouths are gaping and extremely loose. it is getting blown around by the waterflow a bit.

here is a pic

When should I decide to remove it from the tank. I have notice a few tenticles that are coming off. And I think the third 'mouth' was a missing tenticle.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

so the anemone has deflated and I am beginning to get an ammonia reading in the tank. (0.25ppm) So if it doesnt reinflate within the next few hours, I am going to take it out. It is really a shame and I hate loosing an addition, I think I am going to try and find another type of aneomone that will host ocellaris since that is my only goal for the tank.

 

[Rurouni Kenshin]

Dont pull it just yet. I suggest you smell it first, that should let you know if it is polluting your tank.

 

[pfan151]

To me that anemone looked to be in trouble even in your first pic

 

[PSEUDOREEFER]

You may be ok with it in this tank. You certainly have enough light. I would add to the biofilter- more well cured live rock and or sand in the fuge to help keep the water quality more stable. Can't have too much IMO. As long as it is happy to sit in one place, and you can keep the environment stable, you should stand a good chance

If you haven't removed it yet you will definitely NOT be ok with this in your tank. You definitely don't have enough light (these anemones often stretch toward 6500K 400's). Adding further live rock to the refugium at this time would temporarily Destabilize the system. Lastly, you defiantly don't stand a good chance if any of keeping a Magnifica in a 40 gallon system. Small systems have proved to just not be stable enough to keep these anemones (I'm sure someone may bring up one random exception to this, but go by the norm, not the exception). If the anemone hasn't been removed yet (and is in reasonable condition) you should pursue finding another local hobbyist to take it or send it back to a store that may be able to care for it. Sorry to be so negative, but these are right up there with s. gigantea as far as difficulty goes.

I have two magroves and a large clump about the size of a basketball of bubbled leafed algae. (not bubble algae but I cant remember the name, i think it is something like ''calperia'')

Caulerpa can be quite a nasty algae with the capacity to take over your tank (not to mention crash it entirely if it releases spores). I would suggest replacing it with Chaeto.

I am going to try and find another type of anemone that will host ocellaris since that is my only goal for the tank.

The "natural hosts" of clownfish are only the hosts that that particular species of clownfish is found living in in the wild. A bta would just as likely host your clowns and would be a good addition to your tank.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6864896#post6864896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Poorcollegereef
When should I decide to remove it from the tank.

You should have never placed a ritteri in a 20 gallon aquarium.
Quite honestly, you seem to have the resources available to you to become educated enough to know that placing a ritteri in a 20 gallon aquarium was a very poor decision.
Now the big question is- will you learn from your mistake?

 

[maww]

you all are way too harsh, and are feeding off of your own dogma. I have 3 ritt's and a haddoni in a 65 gallon. They are now under a 150W DE MH, and are doing as well as they did under 400W of MH. I also had the tank attached to a 150 gallon sump, until I flooded my living room twice with pump/overflow malfunctions. I have noticed no difference in the state of these guys since the cut off of the sump almost a year ago, and the reduction in lighting since October. In fact the 2 most recent ritteri's I have acquired (1 year for one, 3 months the other) have grown substantially under these conditions. My experience has been that a stable environment coupled with a healthy anemone to start with are the most important points with keeping these guys alive. Maybe you all need to go back and review Shimeks "Host Anemone Secrets" booklet, and let some of this high light/high flow super huge tank dogma die the death.

 

[z_rivers]

too bad the anemone is going downhill, but from your pictures it looked like it was never healthy from the beginning. the should have fat tentacles, not long skinny ones like your pics.

i do agree with maww on her points about anemones not needing high light/flow but things can vary. H. mags have been BEST kept when under strong flow, and intense lighting. im not saying you wont have them survive under a 150w mh vs a 1000w but it seems they do better under the stronger elements.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6875416#post6875416 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maww
let some of this high light/high flow super huge tank dogma die the death.

Nobody said anything about having a "super huge tank".
What I said was a 20 gallon aquarium is way too small for a healthy H. magnifica, which is the second largest "great" anemone species. A mag can easily grow to over 30" in diameter if you provide the proper environment for one.